Did the District Court err in concluding the 1964 deeds conveying water rights were ambiguous?
2. Did the District Court err in determining that Wills Cattle Company has no ownership interest in either the middle or north McDonald irrigation ditches on the Shaws’ property? BACKGROUND The factual background giving rise [*2] to this case begins over a century ago when two brothers, Tom McDonald and John McDonald, established homesteads in the Union Creek valley, east of Bonner, Montana, on Sections 15 and 16, Township 13 North, Range 16 West. The brothers appropriated water from Union Creek and dug irrigation ditches to flood irrigate their land. Both Sections 15 and 16 were eventually purchased by W.K. Wills and were operated as a single ranch called the Wills Ranch Company. W.K. Wills sought adjudication that he was the owner of the McDonald water rights. In a district court decision and in Wills v. Morris, 100 Mont. 514, 50 P.2d 862 (1935), it was decreed that W.K. Wills was the owner of the Tom McDonald water right in the amount of 162 inches of water and of the John McDonald
